


This Is Home

by WinterStardustDragon (WinterFlameWingman)



Series: World Hopping Oneshots [1]
Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters (Anime & Manga)
Genre: Ari needs help, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Ghosts of the Past - Freeform, References to Pokemon, Songfic, This Is Home Cavetown
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-28
Updated: 2019-12-28
Packaged: 2021-02-24 21:27:41
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,158
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22004707
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WinterFlameWingman/pseuds/WinterStardustDragon
Series: World Hopping Oneshots [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1584505
Kudos: 1





	This Is Home

**Often I am upset**  
**That I cannot fall in love**  
**But I guess**  
**This avoids the stress of falling out of it**

  
Sitting on the floor, Ari stared up at the ceiling. It wasn't a surprise to him that he couldn't sleep, this wasn't the first time and Heaven only knows that it wouldn't be the last. Honestly he spent more time thinking than anything else. It probably unnerved the others with how well he could think, seeing as... He ran into horrible situations without thinking first. 

  
But alas, it didn't help any better than when he tried his own spontanious therapy session with his Zanpakuto spirit.... In fact he could probably say that it was worse than those spontanious therapy sessions. Usually, he'd try and clean up after the mess they'd made earlier. But both Grandpa and Yugi's mother had strongly disapproved.   
So while he stayed at the Muto residence, he could no longer putter around trying to get rid of the sudden strangling feeling around his throat. 

  
Shaking his head, Ari stood up from his position on the floor. 

**Are you tired of me yet?**  
**I'm a little sick right now**  
**But I swear**  
**When I'm ready I will fly us out of here**

  
Starting toward the bathroom, Ari paused before he looked back at his sleeping brother. He couldn't help but smile a bit when the kid muttered something about Dark magicians not needing cheese blocks. 

  
Turning back around, Ari assured himself that Yugi didn't need to know what he was planning yet. Besides, if he stuck around the smaller duelist enough... He'd grow to hate him in one way or another. 

  
Kodaina argued otherwise but he let the argument fall on deaf ears as he searched the bathroom for what he was looking for. 

  
Did he want to do this? 

  
It was a big step in the wrong direction, he knew that much. He could feel the anxiety building up in his chest as he stared at his long hair through his partial working golden eye. What if this didn't work? 

  
He'd always heard that cutting your hair short was a signal for life change. 

**I'll cut my hair**  
**To make you stare**  
**I'll hide my chest**  
**And i'll figure out a way to get us out of here.**

  
Taking a deep breath, Ari took the scissors off the counter where Yugi had placed them then stared at his face in the mirror experimentally. The back of his hair nearly reached his ankles, while the front nearly reached his chest. 

  
_Could he...?_

  
With a gentle coaxing from Kodaina, Ari lifted the scissors up and started cutting. First, he started with the bangs. He paid little attention to whether or not it was actually even. Finally. he stared at the back of his hair and sucked in a breath. 

  
Then he cut. 

**Turn off your porcelain face**  
**I can't really think right now in this place**  
**There's too many colors**  
**Enough to drive all of us insane**  
**Are you dead?**

  
Dropping the huge hair weft on the floor, Ari felt a huge weight come off his shoulders. Both physically and he supposed metaphorically. He still looked like a girl who'd been in one too many fights, but that wasn't any different from his normal look. 

  
_Ari._ A familiar voice whispered to him. Familiar weights pressed down on his shoulders. Familiar breath near his ear. He'd felt this all before, he realized with a start. Though there was no spiritual pressure, his breath hitched in his throat as the scent of Lukas' cologne hit the back of his throat. 

**Sometimes I think I'm dead**

  
Ari froze in fear and whipped around to face his-

  
_Nothing._

  
It had been apart of his imagination. His step-father wasn't here. He nor Yugi were in danger.

**Cause I can feel ghosts and ghouls wrapping my head**  
**But I don't wanna fall asleep just yet**  
**My eyes went dark**  
**I don't know where**  
**My pupils are**

  
He let out a breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding at the revelation. True, whatever was lurking at the back of his mind that wasn't Kodaina spoke to him in some sort of ancient tongue. A soft but menacing whisper hiss. 

  
But that was more soothing than the gruff voice that had just spoken to him. 

Ari heard his dragon rumble in an attempt to soothe, but it just made him grip the sink harder. His already pale white hands turning whiter with the added pressure. With some relief, that also meant that the trembling that had started during the whole ordeal temporarily ceased. 

**But i'll figure out a way to get us out of here**

  
Ari flinched a bit as he heard the sink crack then completely shatter within his grip. He felt the porcelain cut into his palms, he felt the bleeding start immediately after they pierced his skin. But he couldn't find it in himself to care very much.

  
**Get a load if this monster**  
**He doesn't know how to communicate**  
**His mind is in a different place**  
**Will everybody please give him a little bit of space**

  
Instead, he looked into Yugi's room to find the boy bolted upright. Violet eyes met heterochromatic ones and narrowed slightly as they looked over his form. Vaguely, he realized it was Yami. Not Yugi. 

  
His train of thought froze as he felt another pressure of hands against his shoulders. Ari tensed under the sudden almost crushing weight rest against him. The smell of blood and hatred filled his nose and he swiped his hand behind him to get rid of the sensation. 

  
**Get a load of this trainwreck**  
**His hair's a mess and he doesn't know who he is yet**  
**But little do we know the stars welcome him with open arms**

  
Feeling a sudden prick in his palm Ari looked down to see Yugi, no Yami, picking the pieces of sink out of his wounds carefully. Ari couldn't help but think this is what Yami and Yugi looked like in the middle of a duel while he was thinking about what cards to play and when. 

  
Focused. 

Like- 

Ari flinched backward as N took the place of Yami, staring up at him in confusion and hurt. 

  
**Oh**  
**Time is**  
**Slowly**  
**Tracing his face**

  
He was brought back to reality by a gentle slap on his scarred cheek. Though instead of continuing with the procedure, the older spirit gently rubbed his thumb across one of the many scars that littered his cheek. 

  
Leaning forward, Ari rested his head on the smaller man's shoulder and let out a shaky sigh as the whispering in his head finally stopped.   
A part of him heard the strange mutterings in another ancient language that was drastically different than the one those that rested in his mind. But the other part of him didn't find the time to care. 

**But strangely he feels at home in this place.**


End file.
